No Sidelines Allowed
Like many of you, I love sports. I love games, and I love a challenge. Marathon? Sign me up! Ironman Triathlon? I’ll take that challenge! Cue the song “Put Me In, Coach”…
Now, I love to watch a good game. I love to watch the Cubs, win or lose (though winning is a heck of a lot more fun). I love a good Georgia Bulldog football game. But watching a game is an entirely different experience than being IN the game. When you’re IN the game, you’re invested. You’ve trained, you’ve sacrificed, you’ve committed to showing up, and you’ve put in the sweat to do your best for your team. Wearing the jersey as a team member holds an entirely different weight than wearing the jersey as a spectator.
There is a spiritual application to this concept, too. God’s “game plan” for humankind is straight out of Matthew 28, and is most often referred to as The Great Commission. The main point or goal? GO. Go and tell. Go and make disciples. Go and baptize, teach and encourage. GO has become one of our core Values at Mission. Why? Because it is what Jesus did, and what He’s instructed us to do. Us GOING is His plan to reach others. We’re His game plan.
Years ago, in the Stratford Middle School cafeteria, our Mission Church Launch Team gathered for what we called our Team Night. That night, we shared about the 4 teams that would help run the ministry of Mission Church. We had a big poster board of each team with all the volunteering roles on each board. As the 60 adults of our Launch Team listened, I said “if you add all these volunteering roles up you will find that we have around 150 roles, and we need to fill all of these roles. How we’re going to do that? I have no idea, but one thing I do know is this - the church we are starting together will be a church where there are NO sidelines allowed. We are not spectators. We are IN THIS THING - and we want nothing short of being ALL in.”
Watching the game is inspirational. Being IN the game... that’s transformational. Go! Get in the game.
- Jon
#StayReady
#ChooseGrowth
#TrainForTransformation